The Duplicity of Clara

From her beginning, Clara has been a character of two identities, which I find interesting. In Asylum of the Daleks, she was Oswin Oswald and she was a Dalek. In The Snowmen, she was Clara Oswin Oswald, the barmaid, and Miss Montague, the nanny. In The Bells of Saint John, we learn that Clara is subbing in as a nanny because her friend, the children’s mother, has died. But, that isn’t really what she does. Throughout Season 7b, Clara and the Doctor are repeatedly confronted by Claras from other times. Only at the end of the season do we learn she had been seeded throughout the doctor’s timeline.

Now, in Season 8, Clara is again living a double life. At times she is a school teacher and Danny’s girlfriend, and at other times she is traveling the universe with the Doctor. She has been lying to both men in one way or another the entire time. And now, after Flatline, we find out that she has been chosen by Missy for some purpose.

This character has never been what she seems. I am reminded how Prisoner Zero in the Eleventh Doctor’s first episode, Eleventh Hour, told the Doctor that “Silence will Fall.” Even though we met and apparently completed The Silence story-arc during the Sixth Season, their true nature and the full meaning of “Silence will fall” was not revealed until Eleven’s final episode, The Time of the Doctor more than two years later. Moffat faked us out. I am beginning to wonder if we aren’t being lead around by Moffat again.

Maybe, we will find out that Missy in some way had influence over Clara being seeded throughout the Doctor’s timeline. Clara did initially (timey wimeyness at work here) contact the Doctor because she was given his number by a woman (likely Missy) in a shop before she was seeded into his timeline.

Perhaps being the Impossible Girl was not the penultimate truth of Clara. What if Clara is more than she appears?

What would be a totally cool, new way for a companion to be a companion?

There is a history in New Who of the companions emulating the Doctor and becoming more Doctor-like. With Donna, she became the DoctorDonna. Clara is pretty explicitly walking down this path. Is this standard companion fare, or is Clara’s story-arc leading to a different kind of ending? Perhaps Clara’s future involves some form of evolution on her part. She has had greater contact with the time vortex and time streams than any other companion, except maybe River. How has this changed her? Is she more than human?

Don’t you love trying to figure out what Moffat has going on before all is revealed? It is one of my favorite past times.

Totally superfluous question to create the appearance that this blog has value: How are you more than one?

I am a psychologist in private practice in San Diego, CA. I have been trying to make sense of the world through the psychological lens since I gave my mother a home-made Rorschach when I was 10.
I learned to cope with that world through imagining the possibilities presented in science fiction. Anne McCaffery, David Brin, Star Trek, Susan Cooper, Tolkein, Wonder Woman, The Bionic Woman, Batman and Robin, Battlestar Gallatica....
Then, I discovered Doctor Who and it all came together in one place. Humor, wit, insatiable curiosity, adventurousness, timey-wimeyness, all rolled-up with the most enduring existential struggles we pudding brains can come up with. I was in love.
So, it is inevitable that I have begun this blog. During the season I will be posting episode analyses on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. I will also post arc analyses and extras whenever I'm feeling inspired. During the off-season I will be discussing the classic Who I am watching. I hope you enjoy!
“The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect, but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves.”
-Carl Jung (Swiss Psychologist, 1875 -1961)